Daily Archives: November 28, 2021

In February 2022, Texas-based startup Axiom Space will launch the first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) a milestone for commercial spaceflight. While onboard, the astronauts will conduct microgravity research that could help future astronauts, the first step in Axioms quest to create the worlds first commercial space station.

The challenge: The microgravity environment aboard the ISS allows scientists to conduct experiments that wouldnt be possible on Earth.

However, there isnt nearly enough time for government scientists to conduct all of the potential microgravity research, nor is there enough room aboard the ISS for all the potential experiments.

Humanity has only scratched the surface of low-Earth orbits potential for breakthrough innovation.

The idea: Axiom Space is working to expand the amount of research that can be done in microgravity by creating the worlds first commercial space station, a place where anyone could buy the time and space needed for their experiments.

Humanity has only scratched the surface of low-Earth orbits potential for breakthrough innovation, Michael Suffredini, the startups president and CEO, said in a press release, and Axiom was founded to push that envelope.

In 2024, Axiom plans to launch the first module. Initially, it will attach to the ISS to expand the amount of room available for astronauts and experiments, and when the ISS is retired, itll separate to become its own space station.

Before that happens, though, Axiom is sending groups of private astronauts to the ISS to conduct experiments.

Were doing these series of missions in order to do a couple of things, Christian Maender, in-space manufacturing and research director at Axiom, said during a November conference. First, to develop markets, but also to do pathfinder work towards what is eventually our Axiom station.

Whats new: The first of those missions, Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), is set to launch in February 2022 with four crew members one is an Axiom employee (hell serve as commander), and the other three are men paying $55 million each to spend about a week aboard the ISS.

During their time in space, the crew will conduct more than 100 hours of microgravity experiments on behalf of a number of universities, startups, and institutes.

We applaud the Ax-1 crews commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap.

Those include studies related to climate change, STEM education, and the environmental health of the Great Lakes. Several microgravity experiments focused on the impact of space travel on the human body are also planned.

We applaud the Ax-1 crews commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap, Suffredini said.

Were confident this mission will become not just a monumental moment in space travel, but the true beginning of making spaces potential for meaningful discovery available to private citizens and organizations for the first time, he continued.

Wed love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at tips@freethink.com.

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First commercial mission to the ISS prepares for launch - Freethink

Supercharge your familys brain power with a visit to these dynamic destinations. Here are five compelling places to consider.

U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Ala..

Do you have what it takes to be a space explorer? Visit this other-worldly technology center to experience the Discovery Shuttle simulator, feel three times the force of gravity in the G-Force Accelerator and to peruse one of the largest collections of rockets and space memorabilia on display anywhere in the world.

You can also discover what it takes to be among the worlds great record holders. Check out the centers latest traveling exhibition, The Science of Guinness World Records, to uncover the stories of those whose talent and tenacity enabled them to best the longest, farthest, deepest, highest records on the planet.

Contact rocketcenter.com

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Encouraging curiosity and celebrating questions, this is the place to see a German submarine, understand how tornadoes and avalanches happen and explore the structure of the eye in a hands-on lab environment.

Discover the mathematical patterns that surround us every day in the natural world from the delicate, nested spirals of a sunflowers seed to the ridges of a majestic mountain range, in a compelling exhibit called Numbers in Nature. Then make your way to the Whispering Gallery to understand how sound travels in different environments. A theater and hands-on exhibits further enhance the experience.

Contact MSIChicago.org

Monterey Bay Aquarium. Monterey, Calif.

Founded in 1984, this world-renowned organizations mission is to inspire conservation of the worlds oceans.

Through a variety of interactive activities and exhibits designed for young children and families, your crew will learn about the delicate balance that exists in our seas today. The youngest visitors will be drawn to the 40-foot-long touch pool for an up-close look at curious creatures like sea stars, urchins, kelp crabs and abalones. Youll all enjoy the playful antics of southern sea otters, learning about the world of mud flats and marshes, and observing a master of disguise, the Giant Pacific Octopus.

Contact MontereyBayAquarium.org

The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis, Indianapolis

Spreading 29 acres with more than 472,900 feet of exhibit space on five floors, this extraordinary nonprofit institution has been entertaining and educating families since 1925. Considered the largest childrens museum in the world, kids can learn about the day-to-day duties of astronauts and get inspired by the powerful stories of other children including Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, Ryan White and Malala Yousafzai. Families are charmed by a historic carousel and inspired by exhibits that explain how plant science can help the world by cleaning up oil spills and cultivating healthy food.

Contact childrensmuseum.org

Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix

This unique museum enables families to see and experience more than 3,000 instruments and artifacts from around the world. Live performances, family-friendly festivals and a wide array of lectures and classes are available. Check out the Steinway piano on which John Lennon composed Imagine as well as the instruments of Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana and George Benson. Wireless headsets allow guests to see and hear exhibits throughout the museum. Kids will enjoy the Experience Gallery, where they can touch, play and hear instruments from far away cultures. Check out their extensive and diverse concert schedule.

Contact TheMim.org

Tribune News Service

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Education travel destinations the whole family will enjoy - Boston Herald

As yet, no-one has committed a crime in space - but someone came close in 2019.

Then Summer Worden, the wife of NASA astronaut Anne McClain, claimed that the former US Army engineer had illegally hacked her bank account from a computer on the International Space Station.

The claims were disproven, and the two women subsequently divorced. But with more and more people making their way into orbit every year its only a matter of time before the first outer-space crime is committed.

The first attempt to draft a set of laws governing space travellers dates back almost 30 years before the first manned space flight. A Czech legal expert published a book about the problems space travel might represent for lawyers.

Most efforts at creating a universal set of laws for off-world activities have centred on property law and mineral rights for example, a NASA bid to capture an asteroid and place it in lunar orbit sparked a major debate about who owns celestial objects.

After all, with the value of some asteroids estimated to be in the trillions of dollars, its a question we need to resolve.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has predicted that the Earths first trillionaire will be the person who exploits the natural resources on them.

For example, one massive iron asteroid that was probably once the core of a dead planet could make someone incredibly rich or end all life on Earth.

The asteroid, called 16 Psyche, is thought to contain deposits of iron worth around 8,000 quadrillion.

Theoretically, if 16 Psyche could be mined and its iron retrieved, the value of the metal could be divided between the worlds eight billion people to make every man, woman and child on the planet a billionaire.

Or, equally, any attempt to bring the multi-trillion-dollar space rock down to Earth could result in a planet-killing catastrophe on a par with the event that saw off the dinosaurs.

NASA are currently working with Elon Musk to design a probe that can land on 16 Psyche, remove a small section, and return it to the Earth for analysis.

Theres another set of international agreements covering the legality of weapons in space. A 1967 Outer Space Treaty signed by most of the major world powers bans military bases, weapons testing and military manoeuvres on other heavenly bodies.

However it doesnt go as far as banning all military activity in space, and the recent anti-satellite weapons tests from Russia and China show that the law doesnt really stretch very far beyond the Earth at all.

John Logsdon, founder of the Space Policy Institute and professor emeritus at George Washington University, says that there are no meaningful laws in space at all.

He said: The governing structure for space activities is way out of date and doesnt reflect today's realities in space.

There are no rules. Theres no space traffic regime or control. [There are] thousands of objects in space - satellites and space debris. Its a wild environment up there with things shooting around and no traffic management to make sure they dont collide with one another.

Paul Kostek, a space policy specialist from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , says that the next phase of space exploration, with prospectors competing to claim the next valuable asteroid, threatens to turn space into a new wild west.

It really is the wild wild west, or in this case the wild wild space,' he said. "What is all of that going to mean, how are people even going to manage space?

See the article here:

Race to make laws in space before asteroid mining starts and there's a 'new wild west' - Daily Star

The sleeper has awoken! More than 55 years after Frank Herberts seminal sci-fi novel "Dune" hit the shelves, and a year-long pandemic delay, director Denis Villeneuve ("Arrival," "Blade Runner: 2049") has unwrapped the first half of his ambitious $165 million adaptation of the award-winning book with mixed results but a palpable dose of storytelling passion.

The 1965 novel was inspired partly by Herbert's awareness of the Department of Agriculture's plan to stabilize and relocate tons of encroaching sand dunes in Florence, Oregon. This blossomed into a futuristic work of singular significance encompassing themes of religion, politics, and ecology amid the turbulent world of feuding houses vying for control of a valuable consciousness-expanding substance called the spice melange. This rare commodity is found only on Arrakis, AKA Dune.

With such legendary notoriety, this project is only the third Hollywood iteration of "Dune," even counting the respectable TV version produced by the Sci-Fi Channel in 2000. The first to mount an assault on the work was Chilean-French cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, whose trippy version would have come with Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and a burning giraffe! Note: If you're wondering how to see the new movie outside the theaters, check out our "Dune" streaming guide for tips on where to watch.

A superb documentary titled "Jodorowsky's Dune" chronicles his exhaustive efforts.

Following the failure of Jodorowskys wild dreams to bring "Dune" to life in the mid-70s, iconoclastic director David Lynch ("The Elephant Man," "Blue Velvet") took up the quest. In 1984, Universal Pictures released the first "Dune" feature adaptation which I still believe is a flawed masterpiece.

Audiences were enraptured with the film's scope and stirring score (and an oiled-up Sting in a loincloth), but were bewildered at the movies' hallucinatory tone and head-spinning mythology. Pre-"Game of Thrones" patrons of that era were unaccustomed to complex sci-fi narratives of the same magnitude as todays "The Expanse," requiring nervous theater owners to even issue "cheat sheet" info cards to aid the confused. Polarizing at best, it's still an ambitious attempt.

Now Villeneuve takes a stab at the book once considered unfilmable, and in his hands the material takes on a magnificent 21st century sheen that at times seems like the definitive cinematic version of the source novel. But this valiant attempt at a revelatory adaptation is sort of ponderous and boring. Not that its not without its visually arresting moments. The spaceships instill power and austerity and those dragonfly-like Ornithopters seem like theyre real machines straight from the novel!

In one of the most startling sequences of the movie near its midpoint, we're whisked from the arid wastelands of Arrakis to the harsh prison planet of Salusa Secundus.

Here in the former homeworld of Emperor Shaddam IV's House Corrino prior to its resettlement on Kaitain, we see thousands of fanatical Sardaukar terror troops in formation during a sinister ceremony while an unsettling war cry drones. It's a chilling scene that reveals the fierce warriors' recruitment process as theyre marked in fresh blood streaming from upside-down victims crucified inside tiered stone fortifications.

Herbert's novel delves briefly into Salusa Secundus as the secret hive where Sardaukar are spawned and trained, but Lynch's treatment doesn't allude to any of it. Witnessing their rituals add a measure of fear that supports their legendary status as the fiercest fighters in the galaxy.

"The big challenge was to try not to crush the audience at the start with an insane amount of exposition," Villeneuve told the Los Angeles Times. "It took a long time to find the right equilibrium so that people who don't know 'Dune' will not feel left aside and will feel part of the story."

Regarding the casting process, Timothe Chalamet is seriously up to the task of portraying Paul, the young messianic member of the Atreides clan who will bring deliverance to the desert planet of Arrakis. Doubters should watch his riveting performance as young Henry V in the Netflix film, "The King."

Chalamet plays Paul with simmering intensity and a hint of naivety that transforms into a determined leader whose compassion is matched only by his reserved vengeance against the Harkonnens and the machinations of the Emperor and the Spacing Guild. The guild and its deformed Navigators from Lynchs version are the ones who alert Shaddam IV of the necessity to kill Paul Atreides to secure spice production. Their monopoly on space travel cannot be understated. Strangely, Villeneuve brushes over the importance of the Spacing Guild and its paranoid orchestration of events that lead to the downfall of House Atreides

Those familiar with the 1984 film will recall the eerie scene when a grasshopper-like Third Stage Guild Navigator in his glass travel tank permeated with orange spice gas glides into the Emperors throne room to warn him of the Atreides' prophecy and implications of his threat to Arrakis' future.

Other cool elements of Lynch's "Dune" you won't see in Villeneuve's movies are the wearable sonic weapons called the Weirding Modules that transform sounds into high-intensity bolts. These throat-worn devices are not mentioned in Herberts "Dune" novels. The special weapons were substituted for the books' Bene Gesserit martial arts form known as the Weirding Way.

Apparently Lynch decided to use sonic modules instead to stay clear of the goofiness of seeing "Kung-fu on sand dunes." I'll sure miss those vocal-triggered neck guns as Villeneuve's "Dune: Part 2" unfolds.

For "Dune's" musical score, the great Hans Zimmer wields the orchestral baton with his usual thunderous aplomb where everything is turned up to "11." This is in stark contrast to Lynch's use of Brian Eno's hypnotic Prophecy Theme and the pop rock tracks by Toto. One wouldnt think those choices wouldn't meld into a proper soundtrack but it gave that movie an operatic grandeur which feels lost in Villeneuves film beneath deafening action-oriented drums and primal chants. Zimmers derivative music seems stale and falls somewhere between his acclaimed scores for "Black Hawk Down" and "Man of Steel." Nothing new here to hear.

The rest of Villeneuve's casting choices are a bit predictable but often daring, especially Jason Momoa inhabiting the skin of the gruff battle-hardened swordmaster, Duncan Idaho, as well as Dave Bautista's rabid Rabban, who cultivates a charismatic ferocity to match his Harkonnen pedigree.

Stellan Skarsgard's Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a bloated brute portrayed as a power-addicted despot, far different from Kenneth McMillans role in the 1984 film which bordered on over-the-top cartoonishness. (Remember the blood-gushing heart plugs?) As the short-lived patriarch of House Atreides, Oscar Issac is a solid Duke Leto and Josh Brolin lends gravitas to the troubadour-warrior Gurney Halleck. Thick-accented Javier Bardem is magnetic playing the Fremen chieftain Stilgar.

As the Lady Jessica, Rebecca Ferguson is engaging and vulnerable but feels too young to have a son of Pauls age. I was also pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed British actress Sharon Duncan-Brewsters gender-swapped performance as the Imperial planetologist, Dr. Liet-Kynes.

Overall, the glacial pacing for Villeneuve's "Dune" feels far too relaxed, especially the plodding first act before the galactic crossing to Arrakis and the stronghold city of Arakeen. The director can apparently indulge in a languorous start due to the project being delivered in two chapters. Lynch wisely chose one extra-long cut.

And yes, those monster sandworms are on the prowl here, perfectly depicted via modern CGI instead of the intricate puppets created by "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial's" Carlo Rambaldi. These colossal creatures erupt from the sandy oceans like killer kaiju bent on disrupting spice production in the fertile harvesting beds. We're treated with some gaping maws erupting from the sand but not any full-length glimpses of their immensity.

Those hoping to see Zendaya ("Spider-Man: Homecoming") better not blink or youll miss her as her Chani consists of seven minutes of total screen time made up of pensive glances inside Pauls dreams and a dearth of lines in the films final scenes. For someone featured so prominently in all the trailers, teasers, and marketing material it seems somewhat misleading.

But it's not what is shown in "Dune" that feels adrift and absent, it's what's not shown. Namely the royal domain of Emperor Shaddam IV on planet Kaitain, his daughter Princess Irulan, the Spacing Guild and its mutated Navigators, and Feyd-Rautha, the Baron's nephew famously played with sexy savagery by The Police's Sting and whose fate is linked to Paul's.

"Dune: Part 1" unfolds as a sometimes sluggish but occasionally brilliant introduction to Frank Herberts influential magnum opus. I can only hope that the sequel, now officially greenlit by Legendary/Warner Bros. due to the films $41 million opening for a 2023 release, offers a more energized pace and emotionally resonant climax to expand our minds like the fabled psychotropic spice of Arrakis.

It shall be seen whether or not Villeneuve decides to retain the secret that Paul Atreides carries the Harkonnen bloodlines as his mother was once part of the Barons concubine. This was expressly left out of the David Lynch adaptation and needs to be included. Another piece of Herberts book thats omitted is the anti-technology stance of banning all AI and computers across the galaxy.

This movie is really focused on Paul and I brought in a little bit of the Harkonnens just for context, to understand the geopolitics of the story, Villeneuve adds in his interview. This movie just gives a little glimpse into the Harkonnens. The second movie is much more about them.

Overall, I truly miss the source materials inherent weirdness and psychedelia (Herbert experimented with magic mushrooms!) on screen and hope Villeneuve delivers a less subdued and sterile interpretation for the follow-up in two years.

Until then, I just might pop on Lynchs much-maligned Dune and soak up some radical 80s nostalgia. The spice must flow!

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Will the spice flow? How does new 'Dune' hold up to 1984's film and Frank Herbert's classic novel? - Space.com

With latest entry into the Star Trek universe "Star Trek: Prodigy" warping into the unknown on Paramount Plus, Space.com got the chance to talk to one of its stars: none other than Kate Mulgrew, best known for playing Capt. Kathryn Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager."

The new show from streaming service Paramount Plus and Nickelodeon will follow five kids who are incarcerated on an obscure planet in an uncharted part of the galaxy. They escape from their imprisonment and race across the planet to find a defunct starship buried in the sand of the planet's surface. They enter the ship, but are unable to make it work. With prison guards hot on their heels, they suddenly stumble upon an Emergency Training Hologram in the form of Capt. Janeway.

The seemingly derelict starship is the NX 76884 USS Protostar. Since it carries the NX registration, perhaps this was an experimental ship or prototype of some kind. Here's how to watch Star Trek: Prodigy online and if you're looking for more Trek, check out our Star Trek streaming guide.

A protostar is a very young star that is still gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud and they have been mentioned in "Star Trek" before. The Enterprise NX-01 surveyed a protostar just before the incident at the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem in the "Enterprise" episode "The Andorian Incident" (S01, E07) and the Argolis Cluster was a protostar cluster mentioned in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Behind the Lines" (S06, E04).

Interestingly, we learn in the "Voyager" episode "The Omega Directive" (S04, E21) that in theory, a type-6 protostar could be used to generate a wormhole So we asked Kate Mulgrew about this. You can watch the full interview above.

"Do you enjoy being nerdy questions about Voyager?" I asked.

"Nerdy questions..?" Mulgrew replied with a quizzical tone in her voice.

"Do you mind if I ask you a nerdy question about Voyager..?!" I continued.

"I wondered if that was coming and I'm not surprised! Go for it!" Mulgrew said with a laugh.

"We learn in the 'Voyager' episode 'The Omega Directive' (S04, E21) that theoretically, a type-6 protostar could be used to generate a wormhole So is this an indication of what's to come, is this an experimental vessel designed to somehow travel to the Delta Quadrant in superfast time by way of a wormhole?" I asked, almost out of breath.

"Not only nerdy, but beautifully and wonderfully nerdy!" Mulkgrew said, smiling. "But unanswerable, due to spoilers. You're going to have to wait and watch."

Along with Kate Mulgew, "Star Trek: Progidy" features an all-star cast, including Jason Alexander (Doctor Noum), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Jameela Jamil (Ensign Asencia), John Noble (Diviner), Daveed Diggs (Commander Tysess), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Brett Gray (Dal), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk) and Robert Beltran as Capt. Chakotay.

"Star Trek: Prodigy" is airing now on Paramount Plus in the U.S. and has already been renewed for a second season. You can also stream it on Paramount Plus in international territories including Latin America, the Nordics and Australia. The first two seasons of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" are also available to on Paramount Plus along with four seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery" which just returned to TV this month.

Today's best Paramount Plus deals

Follow Scott Snowden on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Kate Mulgrew spills the beans on 'Star Trek: Prodigy' and bringing Captain Janeway back to TV - Space.com

Investment trusts are supposed to be century old institutions known for solid but stale strategies, but a spate of new launches have offered DIY savers the chance to own stocks involved in space, hydrogen and "digital infrastructure".

It has been a record year for new fund launches, according to the Association of Investment Companies, a trade body, with 13 new companies to choose from. They have attracted 3.4bn in savings.

However, while more options gives investors the chance to own modern stocks, knowing whether a fund is good is difficult due to the lack of a track record.

New funds include Seraphim Space, which raised 180m and buys companies involved in space travel and communications while HydrogenOne Capital raised 107m to invest in hydrogen power. Two digital infrastructure funds were also launched: Cordiant Digital Infrastructure and Digital 9 Infrastructure. Both buy and run physical assets that keep our lives connected and online, such as data centres and undersea cables.

Mick Gilligan, of wealth manager Killik & Co, has invested in four new trusts this year: Cordiant Digital Infrastructure, Digital 9 Infrastructure, Pantheon Infrastructure and Seraphim Space.

"We bought the two digital funds because they generate a lot of cash and are low risk, because customers of the stocks they own will need them regardless of economic growth. They are also big and growing areas so there is a long pipeline of investors to buy and make money from," he added.

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A record year for investment trusts but only these four deserve your attention - Telegraph.co.uk